Italian Sun
by Alaena F. Dragonstar
Summary: When Fuji suggested the four of them go to Italy the summer after their freshman year in college, Tezuka thought it would be a relaxing trip. He was wrong. [TezuFuji and GP]


A.N: Well, I was originally going to write it more as a continuous thing, but that ended up boring so I did it this way instead. Hope you like it!

Disclaimer: POT characters not mine

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Italian Sun

The day Fuji suggested that they all go to Italy the summer after their freshman year Tezuka looked at him for a long moment before quietly pointing out that one, they were college students and everyone knew college students were anything but rich, and two, none of them spoke Italian anyway so a trip would more likely be tedious than fun. Fuji frowned slightly but he didn't argue—few people argued with Tezuka because there were only so many ways to argue with logic and few of them ever won—and left. But Tezuka had known Fuji for eight years so he returned to their dorms that afternoon and pulled out a suitcase, making a list of things they would need and advising Oishi that he and Eiji start doing the same. So it was that he wasn't entirely surprised when—three months later on the verge of summer vacation—Fuji announced that his sister had won a family trip for four to Italy at a company raffle which she didn't have the time to use and that he could now speak perfect Italian. A week later the four of them were on the plane.

The trip went by in a blur of motion, color, and sound, and afterward Tezuka found that most of it merged together because vacation days were often just that with little to mark them out as either extraordinarily thrilling or boring. What he did remember, was this:

**---Arrival**

They arrived in Rome early on a Wednesday morning. The moment the plane touched down Eiji sprang out of his seat, having been bored out of his mind for the last several long hours, but his eagerness was shot down when the nearest flight attendant barked at him to get back in his seat until the seatbelt light went off.

"She didn't have to sound so mad nyah," he grumbled as he slumped back into the all too familiar embrace of the chair he was starting to loathe. "It's not like I committed a crime or anything."

"She's just worried about your safety," Oishi said reassuringly, though he shot the woman a wary look out of the corner of his eye. She reminded him of a geometry teacher he had had in high school…he shuddered at the thought. It was better not to think about it.

By the time they got to disembark they were all glad for the change of scenery.

"So where to now?" Oishi wondered, staring around the airport as though he thought there might be a sign.

"We're waiting for someone," Fuji replied offhandedly. "This way."

The other three traded startled looks.

Tezuka's brow furrowed. "Who are we waiting for?"

Fuji didn't answer.

Eiji pulled a face. "Who cares nyah! Can we get something to eat? I'm starving! That plane food was the worst I've ever eaten!"

It wasn't until Eiji had pleaded Fuji and Oishi into buying him brunch on the promise that he'd pay for a meal later on in the trip and Fuji introduced them all to a man who had been hired by their 'sponsors' that Tezuka realized Fuji had not, in fact, meant 'going to Italy' to be a relaxing vacation in a nice spot from which they would return refreshed later in the summer but a fast-paced sightseeing tour during which he would be dragging them to as many places all over the country as he could in their limited number of days. It didn't help that their trip was apparently being largely paid for by a new travel agency who wanted detailed reports on everything from hotels to sights and dining in return for the trip.

**---Capri Island**

When Fuji mentioned one early morning at breakfast that he wanted to go photograph the Blue Grotto on Capri Island, no one had argued with him. Eiji was still moaning over the bill for the previous night's dinner—"Fifty one Euros for a tiny pizza, three vegetable soups, and a salad! Euros! What kind of money do these people think we have nyah?!"—which meant Oishi was busy trying to soothe his doubles partner's frazzled nerves while his own got quite frazzled themselves. So they set off with their driver who dropped them off at the docks because of course it was an island they were going to and a seaside cave they were supposed to see. They had to take three boats—one big, one medium, and one small—and Tezuka distinctly remembers wondering why it had to be three when it could just as easily have been two.

When Fuji claimed he was seasick on the medium-sized boat Tezuka was sure it was just an excuse so that he could park his head on said former captain's shoulder for the hour or more it would take their boat to take them to the caves and for their turn to enter to arrive. Or at least he thought it was an excuse until he noticed that the tensai had literally gone a little green around the edges and was breathing in the manner of someone trying very hard not to regurgitate everything in his stomach that hadn't yet been digested.

When their turn to climb into the tiny boat that would take them into the grotto finally came Fuji wasn't only just green around the edges and Tezuka didn't say anything as, when directed to lie down in the boat to avoid getting their heads bashed in upon entry to the cave, Fuji again tucked his head against his shoulder. Eiji and Oishi got into the boat's other end and the drive, standing between the four sets of feet, launched the boat towards the cave, performing an impressive back bend just as they reached the mouth so that he cleared the entry without being smacked out of his craft.

Granted, Tezuka might have been a little more impressed if he hadn't immediately burst into song on the other side. Combined with the echoes of the voices of the other boatmen, none of whom were bothering to coordinate with each other in their attempts at music, the sound reminded him of a vegetable market.

"I don't see anything nyah!"

Tezuka glanced at his other two boatmates at the sound of Eiji's voice to find both the redhead and Oishi with their heads tilted back and their eyes glued on the dark, stone ceiling. He sighed. "…You're supposed to look down."

"Really?" Sitting up, the redhead looked over the edge of the boat—and gasped. The water all around the boat was glowing a bright, almost neon blue. The light seemed to be coming up from beneath the water.

"It's…amazing," Oishi murmured, awed.

"Wow…" Eiji agreed, leaning farther over the side of the boat. It was, however, a very small boat, and the moment he moved the boat began to rock even more vigorously.

"Eiji!" Oishi cried out in alarm, grabbing the back of the redhead's shirt before he could fall over the side. "Be careful!"

Fuji groaned.

"Kikumaru," Tezuka said warningly, eyes sharp.

The redhead slumped back into the boat, laughing a bit in embarrassment. The boatman was giving him a distinctly derisive look. "Sorry, sorry, won't happen again."

Resisting the unfamiliar urge to roll his eyes, Tezuka shook Fuji lightly. "We're inside."

The tensai just let out another groan again, eyes squeezed shut even tighter. His camera remained tucked by his side with his hands wrapped loosely around it. Frowning at him, Tezuka looked back at the water, then at Fuji, then again at the water. Finally, he reached over and pried the camera out of the brunette's hands.

Later, when they were back in a hotel—they weren't allowed to stay in the same one twice, agency requirement—and Fuji was no longer green that he returned the camera to the tensai. He scrolled through the pictures, a somewhat bemused smile on his face. Then he had laughed and told Tezuka that one thing he should never be was a photographer, making Tezuka wonder why he had bothered in the first place. The smile Fuji gave him right after the comment however reminded him exactly why.

**---Pisa**

"I was kinda expecting it to be taller," was the first thing Eiji said when the tower came into sight, head tilted to one side as he examined the white structure around which flocks of tourists were congregated, "and, well, _more_ slanted."

"It's an eighteen degree slant," Fuji replied. "It's quite a lot for a building, if you think about it. Some think it'll probably fall over in another seventy to eighty years."

"Shouldn't they fix it then?" Oishi asked, brows furrowing. "It could be dangerous."

The tensai laughed. "There have been architects offering to fix it, but the people here don't want it fixed. After all, they get a lot of income from the tourists, and without this tower no one would be coming."

"It would still have history though," Oishi pointed out, earning an exasperated smack on the shoulder from Eiji for his trouble.

"Who cares about history nyah! Come on! I wanna look at those stalls. All my siblings want souvenirs and I haven't gotten them any yet!"

"I want to go up the tower," Fuji said.

Eiji glanced over at him and made a face. "I thought you said it costs twenty two Euros per person to go up! Besides, you'll probably just make it fall over faster."

"Really?" The tensai glanced down at himself, brows slightly furrowed. "I was under the impression I didn't weigh that much."

The redhead rolled his eyes, grabbed Oishi, and made a beeline for the myriad of shopping stalls lining the edges of the plaza.

That left Tezuka to accompany Fuji as the brunette moved off to buy tickets. Not that he minded though. History had always been something he was rather fond of, and places like these were most definitely historical.

By the time they all returned to the car, they had lost Eiji.

This stood out particularly vividly in Tezuka's memory, partially because he was used to being the one responsible for those around him and partially because the horror on Oishi's face wasn't something anyone could forget in a hurry. The three of them ended up circling the plaza and the surrounding stalls and mats twice before Fuji spied someone with bright red hair standing in the distance, waving his arms wildly around at a very bewildered man.

"Oh, there you are!" Eiji exclaimed the moment he saw them. "I've been looking all over for you nyah!"

None of them could think of anything to say to that.

**---Venezia**

What he remembered most about the fabled city on the sea had to be the pigeons. The moment they had entered the central square it became painfully obvious that the city seemed to have its own private flock, and all of them were carpeting said square.

He had been trying to position himself upwind of a massive group of smokers—he never understood why people wanted to ruin their own health, many a good athlete had been lost to such careless behavior—and so he hadn't been paying all that much attention when Fuji shoved something into his hands and told him to hold on to it so that he could take some pictures.

He did however realize a moment later when the pigeons attacked him that the thing in his hands was not Fuji's bag, as he had originally thought.

"Fuji—" he had started to say before he clamped his mouth shut to avoid being force-fed feathers. They were literally all over him, and somewhere in the distance he could hear the clicking of a camera shutter and Fuji's delighted laughter.

**---Homeward**

Overall, he was more than glad when the time came for them to get on the plane back to Japan. It was good to see the world, but next time he was going to make sure he was the one planning how.

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**Owari**

**A.N**: Well, now you know where I went this summer Can anyone guess what I bought at the Leaning Tower? Here's a hint—it's sharp and really doesn't have anything to do with Italy, hehe.


End file.
